Silver Shards
by clockworkdevices
Summary: After the Clone Wars ends, Anakin prays only for happiness, yet loses it all when his wife passes away in childbirth, leaving him alone with his infant daughter, Leia. Exiled from the Jedi Order with nowhere to go, Anakin makes a choice for the better by leaving Leia on an orphanage's doorstep. Thirteen years later, he crossed paths with a teenaged girl, looking for her family.
1. Prologue

_Summary: After the Clone War was ended by Anakin Skywalker himself, he hopes for happiness, yet loses it all when his wife passes away in childbirth, leaving him alone with his infant daughter, Leia. Exiled from the Jedi Order with nowhere to go, Anakin makes a choice for the better by leaving Leia on the doorstep to an orphanage, hoping for her to find a better life. Thirteen years later, he crosses paths with a teenaged girl, simply hoping to find her family. _

_Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars, it belongs to Disney + George Lucas. I earn nothing from writing this, it is all for fun._

* * *

The last forty-eight hours had been an absolute hell for Anakin Skywalker, and he knew the future hours would be nothing but the same. The same, dreary, monotone hours of repetitive pain.

He had never been truly happy with his life, that was all the same, yet he reached the point when he had finally given up hope that one day there would be something, anything, amazing to happen to him that would change the way his whole life was going.

That had all slipped from his fingers and haunted him every time he closed his eyes, he could see what had occurred and hear it all playing out inside his head.

The painful screaming, calling out for help even though Anakin had no control over the situation. The tears, the sweat, the heart-wrench.

_"He's not moving," Padmé's voice was hollow as she stared up at her son, who was being held in the arms of a medic. "Why isn't he moving?"_

_"We're sorry. Your son, Mrs. Skywalker, is a stillborn. He isn't alive."_

_Anakin, at those words, squeezed Padmé's hand lovingly and watched tears roll down her delicate cheeks, not being able to make a sound._

_Tears welled in his own eyes, but he didn't cry, staying strong for his wife, who was emotionally broken._

_The pain in her eyes had nearly killed him right then, yet it got even worse when the medic added in, "There's another child that needs to be delivered. Alive. There were going to be twins."_

Anakin shook his head, trying to push those thoughts from his mind though it bordered on impossible.

Everything kept coming back to him, as if to taunt him, to tell them it was his fault and only his fault that he had lost so much.

_"Ani! Ani, please! It hurts!" Padmé's cried out, her face flushed deeply, covered with tears and sweat._

_The emotional trauma had been too much for her, and Anakin could barely manage to tell her what the medical staff had said to him with so much shame in their tones._

_"We're sorry, but there have been some… complications. Your wife… she won't make it. We cannot find a cause, nor a solution."_

_She hadn't even known she was going to die, although the agony she was in probably had hinted that her life was slipping away._

A sharp breath escaped from Anakin's mouth as he was jolted out of his thoughts to a high-pitched scream from in front of him.

Right there, bundled up in a baby pink blanket, positioned on a flat cushion that should have been inside a cradle, wailing.

A little infant girl.

The other child that had to be delivered, the deceased boy's twin.

Leia. Anakin and Padmé's baby girl, the one that Padmé had never got to hold like a mother should hold their own child. The one Padmé never got to care for for the rest of her life.

A little motherless child.

_"It's a girl," one of the doctors spoke in a soothing voice, trying to comfort Padmé as her once easy breathing became labored._

_"Leia," she gasped, voice breaking to a point that was a knife straight through Anakin's heart. "Ani, her name is Leia."_

_"I… I know, angel. Our baby girl, Leia," he could speak only barely, tears burning up against his azure orbs. _

_He wanted to refuse himself permission to cry, trying to hold himself back from allowing his weaknesses to leak through the armor in which he used to hide away his feelings, but he could feel something deep in his heart, and let the tears fall._

_Padmé's Force signature, one that Anakin had come quite familiar with, was fading away from vitality to a closing point in her short-lived life._

_"Ani," she whispered once more, but her voice was too strained to make out what she was saying. _

_"I love you, angel," he soothed, although he was nothing near soothing himself._

_Leaning over her, Anakin placed a kiss on the squared center of her forehead, brushing some of her stray chestnut hair away from her flushed face. _

_"I love you," he repeated himself, another tear slipping down his cheek. "And I will always love you."_

_She gazed at him with a certain sadness fixed in her dulling eyes, not saying a word but Anakin could pick up on he thoughts._

_'I wasn't strong enough.'_

"Leia, hush. Hush, now," Anakin spoke to the child, picking her up and slowly rocking her back and forth.

He didn't necessarily blame her for crying, she was living with him in his ship, as he didn't own the apartment he called "home" at 500 Republica, and he couldn't go back to his quarters at the Jedi Temple.

They weren't Anakin's quarters anymore. After Padmé had passed and Leia was in Anakin's custody, he had been exiled.

Stripped of his rankings of both "Knight" and "General", placing his lightsaber in Master Yoda's hands, he was leaving it all behind him.

Leia continued to cry, despite Anakin's soothing, and he found himself wondering if she could pick up on his thoughts and feeling to know what he was going to do. What he had to do.

_No way. She's only two days old. She couldn't know,_ he told himself, glancing beside him to see a small box with a blanket spread out on the inside, his scrawly handwriting on the front with Leia's name and her date of birth.

She deserved a better life than the one she would have being raised by him, a broken life not being able to know what the next day would bring. The only food being rations, the only money being what Anakin would be able to find lying around.

He was at his utmost worst. And Leia needed a better life than that.

"I'm really sorry, my little princess," he choked. "I really… am."

* * *

_I can't even remember how I got the idea for this story, but I like it. _

_Reviews are great— tell me what you think! _


	2. Chapter 1

_I was not expecting to get more than 2 reviews in my first 20 hours of posting this fic, but thank you to my reviewers, as I did, and have 7! _

_Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars, it belongs to Disney __ George Lucas. I earn nothing from writing this, it is all for fun._

* * *

~13 Years Later~

Leia sat cross-legged her bed in the orphanage she had found herself calling "home" after her thirteen years. Not just any orphanage— _her_ orphanage, the one she had lived in since her infancy, when she had been left on the doorstep. She'd never left, not like most of the others.

She actually kind of liked it there.

Most of the lights were out, as it was night-time, yet the bright city lights of Courascant had shined through the window, making it simply impossible for her to get any sleep.

Not that Leia enjoyed sleep, most of the time she slept, she would be plagued by rather vague, yet still terrifying, nightmares.

So she stayed awake, a thin blanket rested over her legs, a light pillow supported her back, and in her hands, a small paper bound book of poetry that she had found in an old thrift store, walking home from school with a group of other orphans that attended classes with her.

Leia stayed behind and drifted into the shop, enjoying the sight of the antique items and absolutely intrigued by the book, the words hooked together and the hidden meaning in each of them.

The owner of the shop, glad to see someone so interested in his stock, gave it to her for free, much to the orphan girl's delight.

She believed words were beautiful, they were powerful. There was a lingering thought that lay in the back of her mind, the pondering if her biological mother or father had the same feelings Leia did, about words and poetry.

If one of them understood her, and passed down the feelings through blood.

The girl believed she did have a way of finding out, one day or another. She had to have some relative or close friend to her parents out their, alive and well. If there wasn't, who had left her on the steps of the orphanage?

A small part of her wished the unthinkable, that for whatever reason it was one of her parents that left her, so she could one day meet them, although another part feared that she had been placed on the doorstep for a reason.

That she had not been wanted.

Sighing out loud and trying not to once more over think her life (which she did too many times to be considered healthy), Leia turned the cover of the book over to read the first page, not acknowledging the loud sound of the page turn.

"Leia, be quiet and go to sleep," someone hissed from near her, their tone sharp and obviously very annoyed.

"It wasn't even that loud," she snapped back, scowling deeply.

Whoever had spoken before her gave no reply, but another orphan trying to get rest hushed her as loudly and obnoxiously as humanly possible.

Leia wanted to snap something to them too, something like "shut up and mind your own business" and not something that would result in her getting her mouth washed out with soap, but she resisted and placed the book on the bedside table.

She would wait for school the next day, the last day until the one week break that she had been so desperately waiting for. A whole week of herself, no homework, no teachers, no cafeteria food.

She liked learning as well as writing and reading, and she took a special love for debating, which language class encouraged.

But a whole week to herself was something that Leia believed she deserved.

Not closing her eyes to drift off to sleep, simply pulling her blankets tightly around her, she stared out of the window across and above her, admiring the city lights.

* * *

Taking a swig of his beer, Anakin sat in front of the holovision, eyes wide as he watched the podraces play out in front of him.

As much as he hated Tatooine, the races were actually quite interesting and definitely enjoyable, a good way to spend his free time.

The bottle he drank from was nearly empty, but it was his second drink of the already late night, and he decided not to take a risk on a third.

He'd gotten a job a mechanic's shop, one with rather good pay and good service, and he eventually earned enough money to be able to buy his own apartment.

It was at the shop where his boss, a Hapan man with the name of Aren Nehi, had introduced him to beer, as in his life of a Jedi, Anakin hadn't been able to indulge in pleasures such as alcohol.

He didn't over indulge himself though, or try to drink away the pain of his dear Padmé or their children, one deceased and the other in better care.

That had happened once, and he woke up with a horrible hangover and throbbing pain ran through his body, barely being able to recall his grieving moving quickly to himself losing control.

Anakin had found it easier over the years to not mope over Padmé's death and moved on the best he could, although her memory occasionally came to him in his dreams, almost haunting.

Sola Naberrie, Padmé's respectable as well as loving elder sister, had been apart of his healing journey. They helped each other move on, and he told her about his marriage to her sister as well as the death of their newborn son, but didn't say a word about Leia.

She was like Padmé, having a sharp temper when needed and was fiercely over-protective (much like himself), and Anakin knew if she found out that he had left his and Padmé's baby girl, he would no longer be welcome near her.

But even with Sola's help, hee hadn't moved on enough, some would have said. He never dated, even with the many women thrilled to see him as a single man and wanted instantly to hook up with him, and he never believed he would be able to love someone as much as he loved Padmé Amidala.

When the current race ended and the next racers were introduced, he placed the bottle a side table, finding himself staring at a holo that was placed there.

It was of him and Padmé, around a year before the day she passed. His arm was wrapped protectively around her shoulders, and that arrogant smirk plastered on his face.

And that smirk, Anakin had began to despise it. So full of himself, Mr. Hot-Shot like he was better than everyone else when they all had themselves together and he was shattered glass.

But Padmé never minded it.

Padmé— loving him with all his deep flaws and broken problems.

Leia had probably grown up like her mother, or so Anakin hoped. She had probably needed it, Padmé's ability to fight through anything.

But the races returned on screen, and his attention moved away from thoughts of happiness that he had missed out on. He knew if he didn't, the rest of the night would have led to an alcoholic catastrophe.

As much as Anakin had healed, more pain wasn't desirable.

* * *

_Yes, I know this is a horrible chapter. The next one will be much better, I promise, I just had to get things moving and explain some stuff._

_Update will come soon:)_


	3. Chapter 2

_Thank you guys all for the reviews, follows, and favorites! It means a lot that you are enjoying the story._

_Disclaimer: Star Wars belongs to Disney, not me. _

* * *

It wasn't fair, it just wasn't fair.

Only three hours passed since classes had ended, and when Leia as well as the other orphans trooped home like they always did, and she found herself in trouble getting into trouble as soon as something bad had managed to happen.

Trouble always seemed to find her, and it wasn't fair that it had a target on only herself, and no one else ever seemed to take the blame, especially in her most recent case.

A damned swoop bike, one that all the others taken residence at the orphanage had to share, just _had_ to break down on Leia's turn to use it, and out of everyone there, she ended up being the one to take the blame.

The engine wasn't the best, and it was old and slow, so right as she started to pick up the speed and actually move, it broke down and she lost control, slamming into the side of a brick made building.

Smoke rose into the air, and most of the younger children let out loud gasps and a few high-pitched screams, panic arising until someone cut through it and yelled out,

"I'm telling!"

So there she stood, in front of a run-down mechanic's shop, her thoughts greatly piqued and the speeder bike becoming heavier in her hands by every passing second.

Pulling the door open, she was immediately pulled into a different atmosphere, her surroundings changing quicker than a being could snap their fingers.

The air smelled considerably of oil and other smells she wasn't able to name, but needless to say, they were not the greatest smells to grace the galaxy.

The walls, just the same, were anything but attractive, smudged with grease and grime and looking at the least, worn down.

Leia's nose wrinkled in slight distaste, but told herself not to say anything out loud, only to drop of the bike and return again when it was finished being repaired. She wasn't exactly qualified to judge, as well as that it wasn't exactly her business.

"Can I help you?" a man's voice asked, his thick accent and deep tone tearing her away from her thoughts.

Looking up, she found herself gazing at a rather handsome man, his black hair cut short on the side, a bit longer on the top, a hairdo she had no complaints about.

His olive skin seemed to shine from beneath the incandescent lighting, and his dark ochre eyes twinkling with mirth.

The worn down clothes he wore tore nothing away from his attractive appearance, and she found herself not able to look at him without deeply blushing.

"Can I help you?" he asked again, arching a single eyebrow with question.

"Ahh— yes. I need to have this bike fixed," Leia quickly replied, trying to keep her cheeks from fading crimson when their eyes locked with contact.

The man leaned forwards, and when he did, she could easily read the name pin her wore on his shirt.

Aren Nehi.

Inspecting the bike, Aren chuckled, shaking his head in a way that she believed he was laughing at _her_, as if _she_ was the busted down and smashed up.

His eyes darted from inch to inch on the bike, every second he looked making him laugh even more.

"Is something wrong?" Leia inquired softly.

"Wrong? Oh, too much. This thing looks like a total piece of crap."

"Wel—"

"Luckily for you, I've got a man in back who specializes in any type of machinery that no one else in the galaxy could fix."

"Man in the back?" Leia's voice faltered to uncertainty, the strong façade she wore most of the time slipping away.

Maybe she had read too many books, but the thought of some man in the back of a run-down building in the underground levels of Courascant worried her a bit too much.

Aren must have noticed her worry and laughed once again, though not exactly making her feel better.

"Well he won't bite you! He's young, not much of a talker, and probably wouldn't even be working here if I was hiring based on sociality, but he's good at what he does, and his heart is in the right place. Harming anyone, hell no! Actually, he hadn't ever tried beer before we met, and—"

"You're rambling," she cut him off, her turn to arch an eyebrow.

Aren stopped mid-sentance, his mouth still open for a half second until he realized the girl's staring, so he clamped it closed until he had a chance to regain his subject.

"Yes, uh, sorry. Just head back, leaving him your bike and your name, and he'll tell you when to pick it up."

"Ah- will do that. Thank you very much."

* * *

Work wasn't exactly "work" for Anakin. Most workers complained about their jobs, complained about working hard, but he wasn't like that.

He enjoyed being able to fix things, unlike that many things in his own life, but he was proud of the work he supplied for others.

Running a single hand through his hair, he placed a socket wrench on the bench he sat beside, closing his eyes for only a few short seconds to exhale and cool down.

Work kept all of his thoughts away, and when he held tools in his hands, fixing some mechanical part, he felt truly concentrated.

He could hear Aren in the other room, talking with a costumer who couldn't have been less than a child, and Anakin knew any second they would come to the back of the shop and give him another thing to fix.

It was almost like his days as a slave on Tatooine, a new job loaded after a new job, but the main difference was that he actually enjoyed it.

The footsteps approaching were getting louder the closer to him they got, so he stood up to compose himself and not look completely uncivilized.

"Are you the man in the back?" a girl's melodious voice asked, and Anakin had started to answer with "That would be me,", but he did a double take when he looked directly at the girl walking towards him.

Her appearance immediately brought him back, twenty-five years before in a junk shop on Tatooine, when he found himself standing in awe of the presence of a fourteen year old queen, posing as a peasant girl.

The girl had the same wide chocolate eyes as his angel, as well as they curious shimmer in them. The same dark hair, the same fair skin, and the same petite stance.

His thoughts raced a million miles a minute, but his conformation didn't come until she spoke up,

"My name is Leia. I need you to fix my speeder bike."

* * *

_Reviews are love! I promise to post Chapter 3 faster than I posted this chapter:)_


	4. Chapter 3

_Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars, and I also do not make any profit from writing this. It is all owned by Disney._

_Author's Note: Thank you all for the follows, favorites, and reviews!_

* * *

"My name is Leia. I need you to fix my speeder bike."

To say he did a double take would be an understatement, as he took about a million. He could tell his eyes were wide and his mouth was agape, but Anakin knew his dumbfounded expression was not the biggest problem in the picture.

She had found him. Thirteen years and never once had they crossed paths.

Did she know?

No, most likely not. No one knew about his secret daughter. Anakin hadn't told anyone— Obi Wan, his best friend, Sola Naberrie, his sister-in-law whom he had gotten yo know very well, or even the rest of Padmé's family.

It had always been him, Padmé, and Luke. No extra piece to fit the puzzle.

When his body allowed him to release words, he fell into stuttering, managing to get out, "Speeder… Lei— wha?"

"I need you to fix my speeder bike," Leia repeated clearly, a slight edge to her voice as she examined him with a questioning look. "I was told to come back here, _assuming_ you know what you're doing."

That attitude. A blatant reflection of his own, talk back, remark sarcastically attitude.

If Padmé was there, she probably would have laughed and said to him, "She is completely your daughter, alright."

Anakin shook his head quickly to push away the thoughts of her, reaching up to run a hand through his messy, dark, golden hair. His repetitive nervous habit.

"Of course I know what I'm doing," he finally voiced, glancing back at the girl with an equal stare, although all that stare was a front. A mask to bury the mass panic, or the infinite heart-break.

"Well, that is good to hear. Could you tell me, when will you properly finish this bike by?" Leia asked, sounding much more mature than her years, the same way that had Padmé always did.

Anakin would call it her "Senator Voice", the way she almost sounded cold and looking down at him, like an ant below a heavy boot. The teenager must have inherited that from her late mother.

Wiping some grease from his hand and on to the hem of his shirt sleeve, he examined the bike before saying anything in reply.

The whole engine was practically blown, the outside of the bike scorched black from burn marks, the handles busted forwards, and the pedals were nearing the point of being smashed into the body of the speeder.

For any other mechanic is would have taken a few weeks, two or three at the least, but ever understated, Anakin was different.

After leaving the Jedi Order, mechanics had been his only purpose. Almost every hour of the day, he was hunched over something broken. And he enjoyed fixing things, like a craft.

"Three days."

"Three days?"

The skeptically in her voice would have made him laugh if it was anyone _but_ his daughter, because she obviously didn't know of his mechanical skills. Although he did not laugh, Anakin did allow himself the most minimal smile manageable, nodding sincerely at Leia.

"Uh huh."

She was skilled questioning, her arms fixedly crossed against her chest and her eyes flickering from the busted up speeder bike to Anakin.

"Positively?"

He probably would have grinned at that point, maybe laugh because he was always doubted and always came through, but he couldn't.

There was only one conscious thought echoing through his head, haunting like a demon of his guilt.

_That's her. You left her. And that's her._

"Positively," he agreed.

So Leia nodded, un-crossing her arms and turning slightly towards the doorway out of the back workshop. She had started to walk away, but hesitated before leaving completely.

"Alright, um, thank you. I'll see you in three days to pick up the bike then?"

"Uh huh, It'll be fixed by then."

She allowed herself to give him a small smile, her dark eyes glistening ever so slightly, the same was Padmé's eyes glistened ever time she would tease him and burst into her melodic laugh.

"Goodbye, then…" her voice fading as she exited the room.

"Um," he cleared his throat. "Bye."

Too late. She didn't hear him.

Anakin slouched, his back against the edge of his workbench, letting his face fall against his palms. He didn't cry, as much as he wanted to, but couldn't make a sound.

He tried to process what exactly had just occurred, but he had nothing. Mind went blank.

_You can't hide from her anymore_, a voice hissed in the back of his mind.

* * *

Leia's walk back was better than her walk on the way, her load lightened without the speeder, so she was incredibly grateful for that.

When she entered the orphanage, she felt a few stares freeze on to her. The girl who wrecked the speeder.

It wasn't that she cared about the staring, because she didn't, but she preferred not to be looked at like some sort of freak. Not everyone stared at her like that, but few did. Always the same few.

"I'm back!" Leia called out, ignoring them, hoping the owner of the orphanage could hear her. The "no shouting" rule was very limiting.

Her name was Miss Madlyn Hardestie. She was a middle-aged woman, greying auburn hair with slight creases around her eyes and mouth. She was a mere few inches below six feet tall, a few pounds heavier than most, and had a kind heart, spending all of her time watching over a few dozen orphaned children.

Madlyn turned the corner and smiled politely while she looked down on the much younger as well as shorter girl.

"Did you drop off the bike?" she asked, speaking in her naturally soft tone.

"I did."

"Thank you for that," Leia was about to turn around and walk away, until Madlyn added,

"Leia, as it is a vacation week away from schooling, you will have some spare time on you hands."

The teenaged girl caught her breath, replying hesitantly,

"Yes?"

"I'll need you to check in on the progress every day until the bike is finished. You do know, it is the only bike that we have here for the time being."

"Ah, the mechanic said it would be finished in only three days."

"That is nice to hear," Madlyn started. "But I would only ask that you check in everyday."

Leia let out her breath, her shoulders lowering, her reply holding anger as she mumbled,

"Yes, Miss Hardestie."

* * *

Sorry the update took longer, even when I promised my update would be quicker. Obviously, that was a lie.

Reviews are love!:)


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